


Yonder

by slipthroughknot



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Crack, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-08
Updated: 2011-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-14 13:33:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/149708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/slipthroughknot/pseuds/slipthroughknot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life takes unexpected turns.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Yonder

Steve woke up one day and discovered that his legs had turned into the tail of a fish. Turning into a merman didn't make him reliant on air because he was breathing fine as far as he could tell, but he wanted to be immersed in water. He flopped out of his bed, but his fish scales caught on the threads of the sheet, wrapping all around his bottom half like a skirt. The line of his spine went all the way down to the fan of his tail, the raised vertebrae turning into sharp spikes except for the fan of his tail, which was iridescent green and blue. After wasting ten minutes trying to untangle the sheets from his body, he tore it off him literally, surprised at how easily the sheets ripped. The tear sounded loud, a grievous interruption of the morning stillness.

Don't think about it yet, he thought as a mantra. Don't think about how fucking weird it is that you woke up half a fish. Just get to the ocean as quickly as you can. The thought of all that saltwater filled him with some gut-level pleasure that he'd never felt before, so he resolved not to think about that either. He grabbed his cell phone and thanked the Navy for instilling the value of fitness and discipline because he relied mostly on his upper body to get him out to the beach.

It was only 5:00 in the morning.

The smell of the ocean was like coming home and he wanted to go in now now now now now. He felt some flaps of skin on his neck open; they felt like they were absorbing the smell in the air. The sand was painful though -- it went in between his scales to scrape at the flesh it protected like tiny shards of glass. He'd gone through worse once when he was captured on an old mission, but he was still in his human body then, not this strangely tender extension of scaly sinew.

It had taken him thirty minutes to crawl from his bedroom to the doors leading to the beach. He was already exhausted. He slumped down on the floor and turned on his cell phone.

"Danny, please pick up. It's an emergency. Please come," he said out loud as if he was rehearsing a play, trying not to sound as freaked out as he felt. The call went through to voice mail, and he found himself at a loss. What do you say when you turn into a merman?

"Danny, it's Steve," he said after Danny's terse voice mail greeting. "Can you come to my house when you get this message? It's urgent."

His call to Chin went to voice mail as well, and he reached a very sleepy and irritated Kono who sobered up quickly when Steve said it was important. He left his cell phone in the house and decided to get to the beach. Something about his very being was screaming for water, and after thirty more minutes of torturous crawling, he finally hit the shore, the waves still high enough in the morning to go over his head as they hit his prone form on the sand.

The water felt _incredible_.

He looked at his skin whenever water hit it in morbid fascination. His pores had gotten bigger and expanded noticeably every time the water made contact like reverse goose bumps. His scales seemed to flutter and sweep away the offending sand trapped between them, but he wasn't deep enough for it to be truly effective. He felt a membrane slide down from underneath his eyelids to form some kind of shield. Memories from some long-ago science class came back, but they were of little use.

The urge to dive in and get lost was so strong that it almost consumed him, but he held it back. Wait wait wait wait wait.

Patience paid off finally. He heard Danny's voice, and soon afterwards Chin and Kono's.

"I'm out here," he yelled. His voice was rusty, but it gurgled alarmingly in between and he decided not to think about that either. He dipped his head underneath the water when it pooled around him. Salt was entering his body, but it felt so _right_ somehow.

"Oh my God," he heard Kono say. Steve raised his head and saw his team staring at him, their mouths agape.

"I woke up like this," he said. "Help me."

The three of them jumped in surprise when he spoke, and it would have been funny if things weren't so weird.

"Does it hurt?" Danny asked, his voice soft, as if Steve had turned into a child.

"The sand does. It's between my scales and it feels like sandpaper." Steve realized what he said and stared at them. He laughed. Deep bellyfuls of air, choking him and making him panic. "I don't know what's going on," he said.

Chin looked like he was still trying to wake himself up. "Chin, you're awake," Steve said. "This is really fucking happening." Chin shook his head as it to clear it.

"Sorry, Steve," he said. "Just let me think, OK?"

Kono walked closer, taking great care to avoid his tail, which seemed to have gotten a mind of its own as it thrashed around in the waves, some muscle memory surfacing as it was submerged in water. "You said it hurt. What makes it feel better?" she asked.

"The water," Steve answered.

"Then swim deeper," Danny said.

Steve looked at all of them. "I'm afraid I won't come back if I do," he said. The membrane that covered his eyes retracted back under his eyelids. Saltwater trickled down his face.

"Steve," Danny said, his voice broken.

"Listen," Chin said, taking command. "You're Steve McGarrett. Hang on to that, OK? We'll find out what's going on, but you have to hang on to that."

"What do I do until then?" Steve asked. His voice sounded strange, as if it was bouncing across a fluid surface.

"Swim," Danny said. "And come back here when you feel better. I'll stay. We’ll all stay and take turns.” Chin and Kono nodded, their faces resolute.

"You'll have to change into swim clothes," Steve said. Danny laughed, but it sounded painful.

"Swim, Steve," Danny said. "But come back, OK?"

Steve nodded. He turned to the water. The waves were getting lower now. He went forward, slowly at first, a slow military crawl on his forearms. The water got deeper and deeper until he finally reached the point where his tail could exert its power. Reflex and instinct took over and soon he was taking off in unbelievable speeds, euphoria and dread mingling as his body cut through the current like a knife. His pores seemed permanently enlarged and open to absorb seawater. The flaps on his neck occasionally expelled air bubbles. His tail flickered and his scales undulated until he was free of all traces of sand. He could see clearly thanks to the membrane over his eyes. He looked at his hands and realized that tight skin was growing between his fingers.

The Pacific felt like home.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Danny pacing on the beach was a moving beacon Steve could fixate on whenever he thought he swam out too far. He decided to swim back, which didn’t take long at all, resisting the train of thought in his head to go deeper deeper deeper deeper deeper.

When he got closer, he noticed that Danny had rolled up the hem of his pants and the cuffs of his shirt. He was wading knee deep, lost in thought.

“This is the one time you can call me a freak and I won’t mind,” Steve said. Danny started in surprise.

“Jesus, it was bad enough that you were a ninja on land, do you have to be a ninja in the water too?”

Steve felt so grateful was trying for normal that he didn’t know what to do with himself, or what to say at all. He smiled helplessly at Danny, hoping that it would be enough. Danny’s face softened at the edges.

“We’ll figure this out, Steve. I don’t know how, but we’ll figure this out.” Danny kneeled down on the water, wincing slightly because of his knee. Steve looked on in confusion as Danny reached out and shivered as the rough pads of Danny’s fingers stroked his cheek. “This works in fairy tales,” Danny said, and kissed him.

Steve curled his tail around Danny to push him closer. He caressed Danny’s face with his slick fingers, the webbing between them sensitive enough that they could feel each individual bristle of hair on Danny’s unshaven face. For a few precious seconds, Steve lost himself in the feeling of it, the world narrowing down to one solitary contact point that seemed more than enough. I could almost forget, Steve thought. Almost.

But no magical transformation took place. His tail remained the same.

“Worth a try,” Danny said when they stopped, tinged with sadness. “Maybe we should get Kono to do it.”

“Maybe later,” Steve said. “Sit down.” He put his head on Danny’s lap and listened to Danny complain about Hawaii at nowhere near his usual volume and vocabulary. “Keep talking, OK?” Steve asked. “Tell me about Grace.”

He closed his eyes as Danny told a story about Grace’s fourth birthday party. If he concentrated enough, all that he would let himself hear would be Danny’s voice. It would be easier to ignore the ocean calling him back.

THE END


End file.
